To Stand for Truth, Justice, and the Raccoonian Way!
by Theivius Authorius
Summary: Sly and the gang take a much needed vacation in D.C., for the upcoming President's Day. Can the gang stop whatever heinous plot might be unfolding? A two part tale for President's day, that's finally finished!
1. Chapter 1

**This is part of a two-part story, for president's day. There'll be more coming later on, as you'll find out as you read. As usual, if you like it, hate it, are unfathomably confused by it, leave a review! Thanks. Enjoy :D**

Ah, Paris… it's the most beautiful city in the world, without question. And it's home to the most beautiful and wonderful girl in the world, Carmelita Montoya Fox. But sometimes, such extreme beauty around you every second of every day… well… it can get pretty dull. Carmelita, no, she's _never _boring to be around, especially if she's trying to fire 50,000 volts into your back.

You might be questioning my sanity, but hear me out: you're sitting in your living room couch, staring outside of your safe house one night. You see the beautiful Eiffel Tower, standing heroically above all others, the Arc de Triomphe, the beautiful people strolling out beside their loved ones, laughing, smiling. Then you see the city's lights flicker on, enhancing that beauty tenfold. Now, imagine yourself, the next night, and the same thing happens. Tower, Arc, pedestrians, lights. Then again. And _again_. And this goes on for about… I don't know… five months? I'm not sure what got me noticing it, but eventually it just got to me. I needed to get out of Paris.

Apparently, the gang sympathized with me. They'd been feeling things were getting repetitive lately too. We decided that, to save our sanity and get some well-deserved R&R, we'd book a flight out of Paris. Out of France, even! The only question was… where? I thought India a while ago, but Bentley reminded me about the experiences we'd had in India, especially Bagdad (I'll tell you later). Then, out of the blue, Murray checked the calendar. He circled a date on the paper with a red marker, and tossed it to Bentley. He grinned. Then Bentley passed the calendar to me, and I understood; The Eighteenth of February, tomorrow, was President's Day in the United States.

We hadn't been to America since Mesa City; I was pretty excited to see it again. Since it was a day made to celebrate past and current presidents, we decided to go the heart of the country… Washington D.C. Bentley was psyched to finally get a chance to see the Smithsonian Museum, and I joined in his enthusiasm. There just _had _to be some interesting things inside that place, I'm sure they wouldn't miss it if a priceless artifact or two went missing on our trip. And Murray seemed to be really excited to see the Washington Monument, don't ask me why.

Getting the plane tickets wasn't too difficult. We had more than enough to pay for first class, where we wouldn't be disturbed by anyone. The trip was actually pretty calm too, hardly any turbulence for the entre flight. This would have been the shortest, and least painful, trip the gang had ever taken on a plane… if we hadn't been stupid before the flight.

"Bentley, I can understand why Murray and I were acting like idiots, but why didn't you stop us?" I clutched my stomach, feeling sicker than I had thought possible. The night before our flight, we had a huge party, celebrating the start of our first real break in weeks. I guess we kind of went crazy with the Pepsi and Peperoni, our stomachs were killing us.

"Well," The turtle said through his own pains, "The thought had passed my mind… but it seems my judgment was impaired." I could hear his stomach growl in pain, he bent over quickly, moaning. "Ugh… I feel like I'm going through a blitzkrieg, my stomach playing the part of Czechoslovakia… "

Murray was the one hurting the most; he had to have had at least two boxes, maybe three, of Gardoni's pizza, not to mention at least four boxes of its bread sticks. For once, he couldn't speak at all; I guess the pain was too much for him. I would have gone to help him, but he beat me to it. I watched as he bolted to the lavatory with his hand over his mouth. Bentley and I, if we weren't in such a state, probably would have broken out laughing, but we sympathized with the big guy. Over the six hour flight, I did the same at least twice, as did Bentley… If you don't mind, I'd like to stop talking about it; I'm still queasy.

"Well team?" We stood out in front of the Ronald Regan International Airport, in full tourist garb; Cameras, Baseball hats, blue jeans, the whole shebang. We did this in part because we had to stay undercover, and in part because… well, it was kind of fun! Normally, we're in our thief clothes, almost every time of the day, it was good to have a change. "Where do we start our vacation? The White house, Smithsonian, the Monuments?"

We all thought about it for a second. "I think we should split up. We can all see the best sites of the city, and meet back here at… oh…" Bentley looked at his watch, "3:00?"

It was about Noon right now, so it sounded like a good idea. I walked up to a stand beside us, and paid the woman attending it for three maps of the city. Funny… _me _paying for something. Who'd of thought it?

I decided that the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History was my first stop. Bentley and I walked together on the way there, talking about the site.

"Think of it… 9 research centers, and over 140 affiliate museums in the _world_! Think of all the information in that building, all of the history!"

Unbeknownst to him, I was. Bentley kept talking about how excited he was to be visiting the Aerospace museum of the complex. I nodded and agreed to his droning on, but my mind was elsewhere; actually, it was in the museum. Bentley was right, there had to be an immeasurable amount of artifacts and knowledge inside those walls! A grin formed on my face when I thought of all the loot in that place… oh, don't give me that look, I'm not a kleptomaniac! I've got respect for important artifacts of history! And did you forget, we only steal from other thieves.

Bentley and I walked into the gate of the museum complex, immediately our jaws dropped. If you haven't been to the Smithsonian, picture this: A huge building, about as big as an average-sized university, filled to the brim with ancient artifacts of history. There had to be a million different things in that building! Now imagine that there were nineteen different buildings, all standing near each other, each built-in a different style to fit the contents of the building.

"Oh… my… God!" I was slack-jawed. I tried to look around the entire complex, but there were so many buildings you couldn't see them all.

"Sly… welcome… to the greatest source of intellect in the world!"

I couldn't believe some of the things I saw in that museum… Bentley and I split up when the initial shock and awe wore off. He went out to the Science and Aerospace museum, while I veered off to the Natural History museum. As I stumbled out into the museum, my mouth was still open with awe. There were so many amazing artifacts in front of me, right in my reach! There was a tribal mask from the Jungles of Haiti; I could recognize the style from our last visit there. As I went further inside, the theme of the artifacts changed into different cultures and countries. America, Egypt, Brazil, Greece, Europe, Japan… there were so many!

_'Sometimes _I _wished I forgot we only steal from other thieves…' _

I was walking along in the Spain section, when I heard a voice. "Yes, yes, I know, you were right. This place is amazing-" the woman groaned, "Yes, I understand the situation. Frankly, I don't think we have anything to worry about, there's more than six hours till the ball. Why would anyone try anything before then?"

That feminine voice… I couldn't place it… it was so familiar, but it sounded so different from what I was used to. Wait… could it be? I ducked behind a nearby pillar, making sure she didn't see me. I saw the eyes of people walking around stare at me, confused. But I didn't care, I was determined to find who that voice belonged to. I curled my body around the pillar, trying to avoid eye level, when I found Inspector Carmelita Fox, standing fifteen feet away from me!

She was talking on her cell phone, to her father from what I heard. I was worried that she had seen me, but she had her back turned. For a second, I couldn't believe that it was her; why would she have been in America? The only possibility I could think of was that she was on vacation, too. It was weird, though, she was still dressed in her police woman garb. The only difference was that she was wearing an open dark blue sweater. I guess she was cold; D.C. in February wasn't exactly India in June.

Suddenly, a gong-like sound rang out. I was a bit startled, gasping slightly. Carmelita's ears pricked up, and she started to turn around. I quickly moved directly behind the pillar, and held my breath. I pushed down my baseball cap, put my hands in my pockets and briskly walked away. As I sprinted, I was thinking about what she said…

_'What is going on here? Carmelita in D.C., a ball coming up in six hours...' _I sighed to myself. _'Guess this vacation might not be so relaxing. _

**End of Part One: Part two comes on President's Day! **


	2. Chapter 2

***Takes a big sigh*... Okay now... this wasn't my best work, and it came out to being a... different style than I had anticipated, but here it is, the last chapter of TSfT,J,atRW! (Isn't THAT an acronym?) You know the drill, likes, dislikes, put 'em in the review! And Happy (late) President's Day, Sly Cooper Fans! **

If I could have become any more confused, my head probably would have exploded. I mean, there was so much going on, so much that we were trying to get away from back in Paris… apparently Washington wasn't free of frustrations for us either.

I sat on a park bench, near the airport meeting place, and tried to think.

_'We go out on a vacation to get _away _from trouble… and we go right into the same city Carmelita's found her way into.' _I chuckled to myself. _'Don't we have the worst sense of timing? A couple more days wait before flight, and we probably could have missed her… but then again, why would we want to miss her? She always keeps a situation less than boring, that's for sure.' _

I frowned slightly, putting my hand to my chin in thought. _'Six hours, huh?' _I glanced down at my silver watch. _'9:00 P.M. Decent time for a ball… but what's happening there?' _I was stumped. Then I saw a family of three, two parents, and a young girl on the father's shoulders, and thought of something. I got up, and walked over to them, with a smile on my face.

"Uh, excuse me madam? Mister? Could I trouble you for a question?"

The three people stopped, and turned to me. The man set down his child. "Yeah, sure. What do you want?"

I looked down sheepishly. "As you might have guessed, I'm kind of new to D.C. I was with a group, and we planned to head out to see some sights. But I've been hearing about a ball coming up? Would either of you two know where it would be?" It was a long shot, but I had to try.

The woman looked over to her husband, seeing if he had an answer. He shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry pal. I hope you find it, though!"

I sighed. So much for that angle. "Ah well. Thanks anyway!"

The man hoisted the little girl up on his shoulders, making her squeal with delight. 'Bye, Mister!"

I waved at her, with a smile on my face. I sighed. They were a happy family, by the looks of them. It seemed like people in D.C. were a lot kinder than others I'd seen in other countries. It surprised, and saddened me a little bit.

I was just about to go back to the bench, when another man came up to me. "Did you ask something about a ball coming up?"

I grinned. "Yeah! Do you know where it is?"

'I sure do, but good luck getting in there! Mr. Big Shot is bringing in people from all over the globe; leaders, philanthropists, that sort of thing. He says it's an 'open arms equals open minds' kind of thing." He looked over his shoulders, and whispered into my ear. "Personally, I think it's more of an 'open arms equals open wallets', if you catch my drift."

I was still a bit puzzled. I felt like an idiot asking, I could already guess, but… "Just to be sure, Mr. Big Shot means… you know…" I gestured to my right. He looked to where I was pointing, to see one of the most important buildings in the city; the White House.

"Yes, THAT Mr. Big Shot."

My brow furrowed. "Well, thanks stranger."

He waved it off. "Anytime." Then he went on with his business, humming some familiar tune, and walked along the path to go further within the park.

_'So this means that someone's going to try something at the president's ball… why else would they call in Carm? Good choice too, she'll break every bone in a guy's body if she has to.' _I smiled at the thought of some maniac trying to get through Carmelita. _'In a hospital for six months, in a jail cell for six hundred.' _ The president probably picked her for the job from her track record; ten world-class criminals behind bars, two of them repeat offenders, and eighty-six different felony criminals in five years. They don't come more hard-working than her.

As I was thinking, I heard the miniature chimes of my wristwatch, telling me it was time to meet up with the gang. I pulled out the map I bought, and checked my position; about half a mile from the Airport. _'Might as well get some exercise on this trip.' _I exhaled as I got up from the bench, and started sprinting for the spot. _'Let's see if the guys have as much info as I do…'_

"You _do _understand the severity of the situation if this is true, right?" After we all met in front of the airport, we went to find a good hotel. I suggested we'd want to be as close to the White house as possible, which made the others confused. Eventually, when we found a good room with a view of the White House, I gave them the news. Bentley was pretty solemn when I told him about what I heard.

"Yep. But what can we do about it? Interpol's already brought in Carmelita, and she probably has dozens of troops with her. If anyone's planning anything, she'll stop them." I hoped that I was right. I really didn't want to get involved in diplomatic affairs, especially with the threat of being caught by Carmelita on our vacation. I tried to convince myself I was right, as I looked out the room window. I could already see some of the White House staff preparing the grounds for the ball.

Bentley still wasn't completely convinced either. "How many times has Interpol been able to do _everything_ to stop criminals? Once, maybe twice? No," he shook his head, "If we have any respect for America, we'll stop whoever Interpol is worrying about before anything happens."

_'It sounds like we're becoming vigilantes instead of thieves.' _I thought to myself.

Murray was becoming more and more confused. "But what can we do? If someone recognizes us in there, we'll be blamed for it all!"

I grinned. "Have many people been able to see through our disguises, big guy? If Bentley thinks we can stop whatever's going on up there, then we can."

Murray looked pretty disappointed. "Does this mean we can't see the Washington Monument again?"

I laughed. "Don't worry, Murray, you'll see it again soon enough."

I turned to Bentley, "So!" I clasped my hands together. "What's the plan, wizard? We just stroll in there, say howdy to Carmelita and go into bodyguard mode?"

He frowned. "Think we should be making jokes with a security threat to one of the only free countries in the world?" That got the smile off my face. "Thank you. Now, it's a good thing that we brought a spare set of clothes with us. I wish that I had brought more Sleep Darts with me, but I'll see what I can do in a couple of hours. Sly, do you have your Cane?"

I stepped up, to go and search my bag for the cane pieces. Bentley made it a lot easier to conceal it; he split it into three pieces a couple jobs back. As I connected the parts together, I made a 'thumbs up' sign to the turtle. He smiled. Then Murray searched through his bags to find his gloves and mask. As he pulled the gloves to his arms, I could see him slowly smile behind his mask. Whatever plans anyone had in the White House, they'd have to go through us. Well, us, and the police force Carmelita had with her...

It was about 8:45. It wasn't that far of a walk to the White House, so we went on foot. We were pretty lucky on the time, we only saw about three people on our walk, and they were easy to hide from behind the abundant amount of trees and buildings in our path. Eventually the three of us stopped right on the street across from the White House, guarded by a massive gate… I just realized how many places we head to are guarded with gates. A funny concept, since they just inspire people to go over, or around them. Ah well. Anyway, I checked my watch one last time, finding out that the walk was a bit longer than I had predicted. It was 9:12, and the guests were already pouring into the place.

We all opened up our Binocucoms, and set our sights on the inner side of the gate. I didn't have much skill at reading people by their attire, but I had enough sense to know who many of these people were; they all had more dollars than the average bank. Nearly every woman there was either in fur coats, with Jade earrings and silver bracelets, while most every man was in a suit that, if sold, could have fed fifty people for about a year.

I guessed that the ball was in part a fundraiser of some kind, all around the House were banners that advertised for people to be aware of the hungry people in different countries. I mentally patted myself on the back, knowing that we anonymously donated to charities with the loot we accumulated.

The big surprise I saw through the lenses was Carmelita walking into the building. She was… gorgeous! She wore a beautiful flowing dress, white with gold trimmings and designs, white heels, and beautiful golden earrings. Her hair was cascading down to below her shoulders, moving gracefully with her steps. I smiled to myself.

I shook my head out of its daze, we had a job to do. I couldn't stand around gawking at beautiful ladies when there could be someone in need of protection. I put away the device, as did Bentley and Murray. We waited across the House, till every one of the guests had gone inside. I could see that, when they all entered, that five or six huge guards in suits and sunglasses came outside. I understood that the Secret Service employed only the best, but… dang, these guys put Carmelita's Ape mercenaries to shame! I could hear Bentley gulp; at that point I realized that this could be tougher than I thought.

We made our way around the House to try and find a point of entry. I mean, _every_ place had at least one entrance that someone might be able to creep inside, even the White House. But the place's reputation didn't lie; after about fifteen minutes of searching around the building, we found every possible point of entry either impossible to get to, or impossible to go through without being noticed by the goons outside.

Bentley would have screamed if we weren't near such possible danger. We ducked behind a cluster of trees, about fifty feet from the left section of the fence. "This is impossible! I was an idiot, we should have just stayed back at the hotel."

"Bentley, don't beat yourself up!" But truth be told, I didn't exactly have a good idea for us to use.

Suddenly, I heard somebody mumbling and laughing to my left. I turned around sharply to see a stumbling man in a suit, walking down the sidewalk in the most drunken state that I've ever seen! He was about my size, maybe a bit larger, and was singing to the stars, hopping, nearly skipping down the avenue, with an extremely cheesy grin on his face. I would have just disregarded him, when I saw him pull a shining object from his right pants pocket; a 24-karrot gold pocket watch. Then I put the final pieces of the puzzle together. I whispered to Bentley beside me, "Bentley, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

He didn't answer, he just loaded a dart into the chamber of his crossbow. "Just tell me when to fire."

I waited till he was in a close enough range, and made a sign with my fingers. I could hear the dart whistle in the air before hitting its target, making the drunken diplomat fall to the ground. I swapped clothes with the man, who I had found was native to Britain. I guess my British accent would get a bit of training today. Whoopee…

I walked over to the gate, and tapped the man's cane on the bars of the gate. I was lucky that none of the stink of alcohol had been left on the man's suit, or else I would have drawn too much attention to myself (and felt like I would have to throw up for the entire ball). One of the burly men slunk over to the gate, glowering down at me between the bars.

"Yes… 'Sir'?"

Time to go Britain. "Yes, my good fellow, I'm terribly sorry, but I had a spot of trouble off at my hotel a couple of moments ago. I'm Sir Nathanial Cumberbatch of the Queen's high court, I believe the man inside shall vouch for my late appearance here." I grinned lightly.

The ape pulled out a two-way walky-talky, and mumbled into it. I overheard some select words, like 'Crazy old coot', and 'nutcase' in the device, but he let me in all the same. When the door shut behind me, I put my hand to my earpiece. "Sitting Duck in the oven, requesting information on landscape… and a new codename, this is getting ridiculous." I glanced impetuously at my watch, reading about 9:30.

I could hear some giggling near the microphone; they must have stashed the drunk near them. "Sorry Sly, I've got nothing. I didn't exactly have schematics of the most powerful man in the world's home on retainer, and I didn't have enough time to grab on Thief Net. You're blind on this one, buddy."

I sighed. _'This job is getting better and better by the minute.' _ I walked out into the large ballroom, where I got a bit frightened by the amount of people inside. I could see the president chatting with the prime minister of Britain and the President of Mexico, his wife and eldest daughter were beside him. At points, they laughed, and looked at him with grins.

I walked around to try and strike up a conversation with some of the other diplomats, but they all seemed to glare at me. Apparently the guy from Britain was a real piece of work. I went to a quiet corner in the back of the ballroom, resting on a red cushioned couch, giving up on an attempt to make friends with anyone here. I focused on trying to find anything interesting that could pose a threat to anyone's safety.

It felt like I had been there for hours; it seemed like all these people could do was talk, I hardly saw some of them stop shooting their mouths to breathe, much less just relax. I sighed heavily, and looked to the man's golden watch; as much as it pained me to do, I took off my silver one, and left it with Bentley for safe keeping before we set off. I was disappointed to find that only an hour had passed since I came in. I put my head in my hands, bored out of my mind. _'Let's just hope that this is all worth it.' _

"Alone, stranger?"

I looked up, to see (of course) Carmelita Fox standing right in front of me. She had her hands on her hips, with a playful look on her face. I had to play it cool, if she saw through my disguise, I'd need an ambulance. "Sorry madam, guess I, err, dozed off there for a moment. I-" my voice cracked a bit, I cleared my throat quickly, "I can never stay awake at these occasions." I mentally cringed to myself. _'So much for playing it cool…' _

She sat beside me, with a smile on her face. She stared into my face, searching for something. After a few uncomfortable moments, she spoke up. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar…"

My tail twitched slightly. "I don't think so; this is my first time at a national ball."

She grinned. "But I thought you said you '_can never stay awake at these occasions?_' "

I stammered. "W-well, yes, and no. You s-see, it's my first-"

She laughed at my reaction, as I always had before. "Oh, stop the charade Cooper. It might be fun to see you squirm, but you should quit while you still have a shred of dignity."

My shoulders shrugged. _'Aaaand I'm dead.' _ I sighed. "Ah well. It was murder talking in that ridiculous accent anyway," I said as I pulled the bowtie from my neck, it felt like it was cutting the circulation from my head.

Her smile still stood on her face. "You don't need to worry, Cooper, I'm not bringing you in. I know you're just here for vacation." My eyes widened. "Didn't think I knew? I keep track of you, and your aliases to know when you get out of the country."

My cheeks reddened. "Well… be honest, how long did it take you to know it was me?"

"Oh, about five seconds after you ran from your little hiding spot in the Smithsonian." She giggled a bit when she saw me slack-jawed. "Didn't think I saw you, ringtail? You _do _know that I'm a cop, right?"

I slapped my palm to my face, my cheeks becoming an even deeper shade of red. But I realized something then. "Wait, if you knew it was me, then why make me think you didn't?"

She looked quizzical for a second, and then sighed happily. "Think of it as payback for all of the times you've done the same thing to me." She laughed, "I see why you do it though, this is the most fun I've had in a while!"

"Well, I can see why you try to shoot me in the back all the time, it's really _sucks _being on the other end of that conversation." My voice was a bit shaky.

We both laughed at that. Then she looked at me, and smiled lightly. "Come on, ringtail, let's get out of here."

I looked up, and I'll say it, I was shocked at her response. "You'll go out of the white house when there's a threat to the president?!"

Her gaze hardened, the smile had immediately flown from her face. "What are you talking about, Cooper?"

I looked around, to see that no one was listening, and muttered what I overheard in the Smithsonian. Of course, you would have expected her to have said something like 'Yeah, but he'll be alright for a couple more minutes', something in that stereotypical sarcasm of hers… but instead, she broke out in uncontrollable laughter, nearly hitting me in the face with the wild movement of her hands. "What? _What!_?"

She wiped a tear from her eye, trying to stifle her outburst. "That wasn't for the president! That was for Gregson, he's my second in command! It's his fifteenth year in the force, we were getting him an engraved watch for the party."

"Then… Then what was supposed to happen at the white house?!"

She shrugged. "There are a few jokers in my outfit, they like to tell people about surprise parties before the actual party. We put all of them here, without their phones, so they wouldn't snitch."

"I…. but…" I spoke louder so I would be sure Bentley heard me. "There's no plot to hurt the president? Blow up the White House? _Nothing?_"

I could practically hear Bentley slumping in his wheelchair. Carmelita leaned in close to my ear, "Yes Bentley, you came here for nothing. Sorry."

My ears rang from Bentley shouting to Carmelita, "Then why were you stationed in D.C. in the first place?!"

She smiled again. "

I could feel all three of us, Bentley Murray and I, sighing in unison at the news. We interrupted our first vacation in months, worrying that an entire country was in jeopardy… for nothing. I slumped in my chair, letting my arms dangle. Carmelita started to rise from her chair, humming a few bars from 'America the Beautiful'. But before she left, she kissed me lightly on the cheek, me still left in my shocked state.

Eventually, after a while, I shook myself out of it. I was just about to leave, when I noticed a note where Carmelita was sitting. Curious creature that I am, I read the note.

_By the way, you were lucky I was unarmed.' _

As I flipped the card over, I was surprised to find the same picture that I had sent to Carmelita on Valentine's Day, only to find it cut into an unfamiliar shape, which I eventually recognized to be in the shape of Carmelita's badge. I chuckled to myself. _'Great, now she's taking ideas from our gang…' _I put the card in the front pocket of my borrowed suit, and walked outside with a smile on my face.


End file.
